The Vatican's Precious Manuscripts Go Online

Japanese Tech Firm NTT Is Scanning the Ancient Texts in the Vatican Apostolic Library

By

Liam Moloney

Updated April 11, 2014 11:46 p.m. ET

VATICAN CITY — Almost 600 years after Pope Nicholas V founded the Vatican Apostolic Library, the Holy See is now turning to 50 experts, five scanners and a Japanese IT firm to digitize millions of pages from its priceless manuscripts, opening them to the broader public for the first time.

When the project is finished, one of the richest and most important collections of historical texts in the world will be available with a click of...